NCGA BOARD MEMBER PARTICIPATES ON BIOTECH PANEL FOR THE STATE DEPARTMENT

JUNE 2012

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(Posted Fri. Jun 29th, 2012)

This week, National Corn Growers Association Corn Board member Bob Bowman participated on a panel at the U.S. State Department National Foreign Affairs Training Center. Bowman, who also serves as board liaison to the Trade Policy and Biotechnology Action Team, was the first agriculture producer invited to speak during the State Department's course. The panel focused biotechnology and global challenges related to trade, food security, energy and climate change.

"Improved seeds give farmers new choices to cope with new challenges, such as plant diseases and difficult weather conditions, and help feed a rapidly growing global population in an environmentally sustainable way," Bowman said. "Corn farmers have embraced modern biotechnology and, because of that, we have seen the use of fewer pesticides and fuel while improving yields."

The panel leading the session included three speakers representing a diversity of views on modern biotechnology including representatives from the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Consumers Union. This course looked at the wide array of questions surrounding and views on agricultural biotechnology, the ability of biotech crops to address global challenges and various positions on labeling biotech products.